Former lieutenant governor dies at 83

The Associated Press

Overland Park ? Jack D. Walker, the lieutenant governor during the Mike Hayden administration, has died at age 83.

Walker was tapped for the job to help Hayden gain votes in populous Johnson County, where he had served as mayor of Overland Park. Hayden, a Republican, served from 1987 to 1991 before losing to Joan Finney.

During his tenure as lieutenant governor, Walker served as acting director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and pushed for a program to deal with the burgeoning AIDS epidemic.

Walker, who died Thursday, began his six-year term as mayor of Overland Park in 1971. During the same year, he became a professor at the Kansas University School of Medicine and helped create the Department of Family Practice at the medical center in Kansas City, Kan.

He also served in the state Senate for two years, relinquishing his seat to Dick Bond after he became lieutenant governor.

Don Pipes, former Overland Park city manager, said the community responded to Walker’s deep sense of integrity and honesty.

“He inspired public trust and confidence in the people he represented,” Pipes said.

Walker, a native of Girard, was married to Jo Ann Walker. They had two sons, Robert Daniel Walker and James David Walker.